Page 118 of Bratva Butcher

I gave him a deadpan stare. “Don’t insult me, Allistair. I have that much hiding in the cushions of my couch.”

Well, not really, but you get the point.

“What do you want, then?” he asked almost petulantly.

What I wanted, he couldn’t give me.

“Nothing you have.” I searched the crowd of people surrounding me, but there was still no sign of Autumn.

Has she left?

The thought filled me with panic and dread.

Allistair was still talking, spouting off a list of things he thought I might be interested in, but I was hardly listening, my gaze constantly sweeping the room, searching for red, fiery hair and mesmerising, emerald eyes.

Fucking Autumn had done nothing to quell my obsession with her. It was more insatiable than ever. More volatile. I felt like I was going crazy. Like I was going to absolutely lose it if I didn’t lay eyes on her—

There. Relief flooded me. High up on one of the many balconies overlooking the ballroom, she stood, peering over the railing. Our eyes connected. Something indescribable burst in my chest.

She was so fucking beautiful.

There was something about having my jacket over her shoulders that satiated the beast within me. I liked seeing her inmy clothes. Liked seeing the indent of my teeth on her skin. I could stare at her for hours—

Who. The. Fuck. Is. That?

Standing behind her was a man, his face concealed by the dark shadows surrounding them. I couldn’t see him properly, but something about him seemed familiar, as if I had met him before. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I needed to see his face.

He leant closer to whisper something to her. My eyes narrowed, hands squeezing into tight fists.

Those weremymotherfucking marks on her neck.Myjacket on her body. Why the fuck was another man standing so close to her?

Allistair hadn’t stopped talking, even though I’d said nothing back to him in minutes. My phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered it without taking my eyes off Autumn.

“Da? Yes?”

“I’ve got him, but I need your help to carry him out. Fucker weighs a tonne,” Mikhail said.

“Where are you?”

“Look behind you.” I turned and saw Mikhail at the other end of the room, one hand holding the phone to his ear while the other waved through the air so I would notice him over the sea of people.

When I turned back around, the man with Autumn was gone.

“Dimitri?” Mikhail prompted, urgency in his voice. “Kind of on a time crunch here.”

“I’m coming.” Then I hung up. “I have to go,” I told Allistair, cutting him off mid-sentence. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

He spluttered, but I was already moving before he could muster a reply.

Turning my back on Autumn had to be one of the hardest things I’d ever done. But Ihadto do it. Things could not beallowed to progress between us, no matter how much I might want them to.

You love Yekaterina.

You love Yekaterina.

You love Yekaterina.

I chanted it over and over again in my head to stop myself from ignoring my mission. From hunting Autumn down and taking her again and again until I couldn’t stand.

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